Dare To Undertake Warhammer Quest: Shadows Over Hammerhal?
February 19, 2017 by brennon
You might have noticed that a new boxed adventure for Warhammer Quest is on the way from Games Workshop to add to their world of Age Of Sigmar. This new adventure, Shadows Over Hammerhal, takes a new batch of heroes and spices up the formula somewhat too.
The new boxed game is an adventure for two to five players and will feature four Heroes plus one Gamemaster! Yes, the Gamemaster has returned to the new version of Warhammer Quest as a fiendish adversary for your warriors to face down in the blasted city.
So what's going on with this story...
"Hammerhal. Built in the glorious image of Azyrheim, the seat of the God-King Sigmar’s power. Within its walls can be found danger and beauty, faith and intrigue, poverty and fortune. From the gleaming crystal spires of Goldenpath to the mist-shrouded vineways of Ghyra-un-Tyr, there is seemingly no end to its marvels. Yet most who witness this splendour know little of the danger and menace that fill the outer districts of the city, and that which lurks below…"
"A band of heroes has been brought together by circumstance, and are bound to hunt down and nullify a sinister Chaos plot in the dungeons and catacombs below Hammerhal. Lord-Castellant Arvios Sunhelm, his Gryph-hound Archimaine and Cogsmith Golnir Coalbeard are joined by Loremaster Alnaryn and Fleetmaster Vizrin Kyre, as they quest to uncover the Chaos Sorcerer Lord Redomir and put a halt to the vile corruption of the First City of Order."
This does sound rather awesome and I love the idea of delving deeper into the city and adventuring a bit more. It's neat to see them expanding upon the format and taking away some of the random element which popped up in Silver Tower. It was certainly in keeping with the game but made for some rather interesting scenarios.
As well as delving into the Cinderfall area of the city...
...you can also do some neat out-of-game things too. For example, you can visit the market and buy new equipment, weapons and armour, level up and gain experience and then head off to sample the shadowy delights of the city too. It sounds like we're going to be experiencing some of what made the old Warhammer Quest a fan favourite.
You will be facing off against a mixture of different evil-doers from the various pantheons of the Chaos Gods bringing the total of models in the set to thirty-one. You'll also get all of the gubbins that you are used to including tokens and cards to keep you going.
This sounds like it could well be quite the tabletop event full of some interesting adventures. I like the mix of characters and monsters plus the new format might make for a nice change of pace. One-Versus-Many games tend to be viewed negatively nowadays but if the game is right it can make for a pleasurable experience. See the new DOOM game as an example.
Grab Your Gamemaster Screen
If you pick up this game from Games Workshop you can also get yourself a Gamesmaster Screen which is FREE. It comes with the stats of your monsters on the other side to make things a little easier...
It looks rather flash and I love the way the artwork on the front has been done. It'll be fun to see how the new game comes across and we hope it does well!
What do you think of Shadows Over Hammerhal?
"Yes, the Gamemaster has returned to the new version of Warhammer Quest as a fiendish adversary for your warriors to face down in the blasted city..."
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the game & figures look great nice paint job on them as well.
It’s on pre-order, so yes, I do indeed dare. 😉
Managed to keep my wallet away from the web store for 24 hrs, but then it sneaked off and made the order while my back was turned. Funny the wife didn’t believe me either.
Bloody Wallets they do that …… and leave husbands to take the blame ….. bloody wallets 😉
That is one big box of shiny 😀 .
And the gamemaster screen is not part of the game, because … ???
I’d swear the writers used a random name generator for those names, because they don’t sound like real people …
Or is the AoS setting like that ?
Yes the names are a little silly but to be fair if it Dave, Bruce, Sally and Bert slipping off to the local dungeon for the arvo it would be equally silly.
Sure, but at least the human factions ought to have somewhat ‘normal’ names.
On the plus side the bad guys do have interesting figures, so it’s not all bad 😉
And why can’t my wife (Sally) and I along with our friends Dave and Connie go dungeon delving? Admittedly we wouldn’t take our dog trygjus-van-sauritol (or Toby for short) with us; but he is only a sausage dog and not much use against the denizens of chaos!
I loved the old warhammer quest and its good to see how the rules are progressing but for me the models of the heroes are very busy, if I got this set I’d want to proxy in some others that in my eyes better reflect a dungeon expedition.
I stand corrected., How hideously inappropriate of me to suggest that you, your good lady wife and your dear friends couldn’t nip off for a spot of dungeon delving. In fact give Toby a nice eagle mask and I am sure he’ll make a fine gryphound. So deeply apologetic Sir. 😉
@brucelea
Dress Toby in a spider outfit and he might even scare those mighty chaos warriors …
Even little dogs have their uses with a little out-of-the-box thinking 😉
Because you don’t really need it. Imperial Assault doesn’t have one.
Not a fan of the “Everything must be gold!” paint schemes on the heroes but I do like the minis. That dwarf is especially cool and a lot more traditional than what we’ve seen so far. I don’t need another big box of minis in my life but if I love what this brings to the original game.
I don’t think any of the minis are new. They are all existing kits. That’s not a bad thing. However, the GM screen being both separate and “limited” is a bad thing. I keep wanting to get into new GW games and every time they show off something I have to go out of my way to MAYBE get a copy just leaves a bad feeling. Why in the heck would they not just let us buy the GM screen? I buy GW at my local shop rather than online preorders so I miss most of these limited releases and… Read more »
I’ve preordered so there’s one less for you 😮
I get my stuff delivered to my local gw then pick it up from there usually – the guys in store seem to prefer selling us rarer items from the web store’s quota rather than the stores’.
I tried what you were doing, but ended up not getting the rare items that I wanted.
Seems awfully pricey.
I don’t think this one stacks up too badly. The obvious comparison out there is Dungeon Saga. That retails (from Mantic) at £59.99 and comes with 28 minis. You only get three more in this for £90 but they’re way higher quality. I backed the DS Kickstarter and I was a little let down by the quality of the minis. That’s from the view of a mini gamer though, I don’t mind paying a higher price for proper kits rather than the single pose plastics.
The quality is key here. I love Dungeon Saga and have almost finished painting the complete set and all the expansions. But I’d be lying if I said the miniatures were quality because they’re a real mixed bag in terms of aesthetics, sculpt quality and cast quality. With GW, aesthetics aside (which are ultimately very subjective) the cast and sculpt quality is always outstanding, even if you don’t like the designs.
Here comes the maths If you add things up individually then you get (note, I think most single characters are far too expensive) Dwarf (there is no separate option to buy, but I’ll guess it will cost the same as most characters) -12 Dark Elf Fleetmaster – 12 High Elf Loremaster – 12 Lord Cellestian + Gryph Hound – 23 Chaos Sorc – 9 Blight Kings – 33.50 Acolytes (price based on half a box) – 15 Blood Reavers (price based on half a box) – 17.50 All adds up to £134, which is a saving of £44, before you… Read more »
You can buy the dwarf separately, he is the Cogsmith and costs 13£ but it seems he is not available at the moment:
https://www.games-workshop.com/Grimm-Burloksson
That looks like standard pricing for boxed boardgame vs models.
Definitely not a bad deal if you like the minis and you get a decent game for free too …
Those Blight Kings are really good looking models.
Not picked up Silver tower. Seems an ok expansion, not a fan of a number of the hero models
Not impressed by not having a gm screen in the box.
Many Games don’t because they’re not really necessary. Descent, Imperial Assault, Conan ; they don’t have a screen.
We don’t need games, it can be nice to have though. Make the pre-order bonus a die or badge. Those games didn’t produce one to then limit availability.
Yeah, but when you buy this game you don’t need one to play it. However GW are offering one by way of a freebie with pre-orders. If they hadn’t offered a screen at all nobody would have batted an eye lid. They offer one for free for people pre-ordering from them and suddenly it’s a big deal and should be included in the box.
What If they made the pre order bonus a badge and didn’t do a GM screen at all? Would that be better?
@onlyonepinman in general I find GW’s pre-order bonuses are objectionable, because they normally tie that into limited availability. Pre-order bonuses are a reward for people who will put the money up front trusting in the company, Warlord do this well, and they also do web store only items – they are really clear what they are offer for what. Also normally providing rules or articles to inform your decision. Gw adds the while stock lasts element, which to me smells of buy it but don’t stop to consider your purchase. Which makes me, a truly cynical individual, believe that they… Read more »
Opinions about pre-order incentives aside, the screen is purely cosmetic – you don’t need it, it’s just a nice thing to have. It’s not crap but nor is it an essential item.
It may not be necessary, but it kind of feels like it would fit *this* particular game quite nicely.
I know it’s their way of getting a bit of extra preorders in on their website/stores, but (IMHO) it is a bit dishonest and makes one think they don’t value their chances of getting customers to come to them without dangling shiny bits in front of them .
It does fit the game and if you want one, all you havr the do is preorder the game from GW. Don’t want to pre-order from GW? That’s fine, then screen isn’t an essential item for the game. As I said in the reply to @Dags, if GW hadn’t offered it as a freebie the fact that there wasn’t one in the box wouldn’t have registered and but the fact that they’re offering one as a freebie for pre-orders is somehow a big deal.
Actually I quite like silver tower – there’s no screen as the rune-marked player moves the Tzeentch models, which means you can get by with 1 less person.
The Kairic Acolytes are a favourite of mine.
I’m really hesitant about this. On the one hand I like that they are going back towards including some real advancement rules and treasure in the game (which I like), but on the other hand there are still those slim treasure and skill card decks, so I’m not sure how well thought out those rules are. I’m also not a fan of one player having to be the GM. There’s no hint so far that you can play this co-op, so I would imagine that it’s not possible (otherwise I’m sure they’d mention being able to play it both ways).… Read more »
Actually, looking at the DM screen they seem the Monster profiles seem to include the random behaviour tables which made up the AI of Silver Tower’s co-op mode. From the looks of it, it wont be a problem to continue playing the game in that way. Having the option to play the game with or without a DM, like descent for example, makes the product really versatile and caters to different tastes.
This looks awesome 🙂
Games Master Screen? – I bought my Silver Tower set from my local retailer. GW had packed the box badly and the card set were dented by sprues 🙁
Made me think it might be worth ordering future sets direct from GW mail order so they could sort damage-issues.
Why didn’t you ask your retailer for replacements or even GW, their support doesn’t seem to bad.
just easier at the time to order a new set from Bitz and Kitz 🙂
I live quite far from my retailer – sometimes work long hours and don’t get down much
Look at that dial-shaped inset floor-piece! – I think I remember it from Advanced Heroquest 🙂
and Nurgle Chaos Warriors 🙂 🙂 Tabletop Minions has a theory that the Nurgle Champion with the axe can be found in every single one of the new White Dwarfs – not a conspiracy, just an awesome iconic figure….
Certainly a step towards the old classic we know and love (and wished Silver tower had been), so yes I caved and pre-ordered it, just hope it lives up to it’s predecessor! 😀
pre-ordered.
Now to see what’s in the box 🙂
I have this pre-ordered too, haven’t even opened Silver Tower yet lol. It’s just on my pile of shame. I also appear to have collected a sizeable Chaos warband purely by accident! As well as the bloodbound stuff from the AoS box I have all the Tzeentch stuff from Silver Tower and soon some more Chaos stuff from the new Warhammer Quest game.
It’s totally true about the corrupting influence of Chaos. I was always a good, Sigmar fearing lad, never dabbled in the Dark Arts, had armies of Elves and Men. And before you know it I’m weighing the relative merits of each of the Gods!